Rail firm on track for £40m payout

ENGINEERING works to cut journey times on the Glasgow to Edinburgh railway line have cost the taxpayer £40m in compensation payments to ScotRail.

Abellio ScotRail was given the money by publicly owned track operator Network Rail for two years of disruption caused by closure of the Queen Street tunnel and delayed electrification works on the main Glasgow to Edinburgh line.

The compensation haul over those two years is 10 times the annual amount paid out in previous years.

The Dutch-owned firm posted a £3.5m loss last year and blamed the engineering works for its poor performance.

A ScotRail spokesman: “This is a standard arrangement that all train operating companies across the country have with Network Rail to compensate for planned disruption.

“The figure for 2016/17 reflects the disruption caused by the major work carried out at Queen Street last year, which was vital to the completion of the electrification of the line between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

“Customers are now benefitting from this work, with electric trains running between Edinburgh and Glasgow via Falkirk High, which means more seats and some faster journeys.”

Work to cut the Glasgow to Edinburgh journey time to just 42 minutes has been hit by a series of delays.

The original target for the shorter journey time was next December.

But delays to the engineering project, and problems with the new trains, mean the first electric train service won’t now run until May next year, with the shorter journeys some time after March 2019.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Scotland’s railway is undergoing a period of enhancement and expansion unmatched since the Victorian era, with huge investment being delivered to increase capacity, improve passenger facilities and introduce new trains.

“Payments are made to train operators to compensate them for the financial impact of planned disruptions to their services caused by engineering works.

“The payments are calculated to reflect the revenue lost from reduced ticket sales and the other costs incurred such running replacement buses, training drivers on diversion routes or additional planning costs.”

All rail operators are entitled to put in claims to publically-owned Network Rail when planned and unplanned engineering works impact on the service they provide.

Earlier this month we revealed how the fines imposed on ScotRail for poor service have more than doubled.

Labour MSP Colin Smyth said the combination of poor performance and compensation paid for by the taxpayer was an unacceptable double whammy,

He said: “Scottish Labour would take our railways back into public ownership.”